Film Society of Lincoln Center to Create New Documentary-as-Art Showcase

The Film Society of Lincoln Center plans to help redefine the world of documentary filmmaking with their latest showcase "Art of the Real," a new documentary-as-art series that aims to highlight independent documentaries at the Film Society from April 11-26.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center plans to help redefine the world of documentary filmmaking with their latest showcase "Art of the Real," a new documentary-as-art series that aims to highlight independent documentaries at the Film Society from April 11-26.

The mission of this new showcase, aside from promoting independent documentary filmmaking, is to reset the priorities that have come to define the genre. "Despite its growing popularity, the documentary as we have come to
know it, especially in the United States, too often emphasizes content
over form, information over aesthetics,” states Dennis Lim, the Film
Society’s Director of Programming. “We think of 'Art of the Real' as a
necessary showcase for some of the most daring and unclassifiable work
in contemporary film as well as a call for the documentary to be
reconsidered as art."

In its inaugural year, "Art of the Real" will be presenting both new work from
around the world and retrospective selections by known and
unjustly forgotten filmmakers. Highlights of the showcase will include a retrospective of film and audio works
from the Sensory Ethnography Lab ("Sweetgrasst," "Manakamana") and will also feature many in-person appearances, including best-selling novelist Rachel Kushner ("The Flamethrowers") and visual artist Carolee Schneeman ("Interior Scroll").

Raya Martin and Mark Peranson's "La Ultima Pelicula," which premiered
at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, will be the opening film for the
2014 Art of the Real, while Robert Greene's "Actress" has been selected for closing night. The complete lineup will be announced next month.